Somedays the jokes just write themselves. This story from the wire service (hosted by Salon), has the details:

Stung by earlier court rulings, Microsoft Corp. has positioned one of its top lawyers to run a legal committee to influence how much oversight U.S. courts exercise in antitrust settlements like the one the company negotiated with the Bush administration. The debate over how aggressively federal judges should scrutinize these settlements is pivotal in the next major ruling in Microsoft's long-running antitrust case, a decision that could come as early as Friday

So, Microsoft avoids being broken up, the original judge on the case is replaced, they negotiate a settlement with the government after the election where one of the President's consultants had taken money from MS, and a recent report for the courts has found that the sanctions that were imposed on Microsoft weren't creating any competition for the company.

I mean, haven't they suffered enough? Not according to Massachusetts:

Massachusetts, the only holdout state that continues to press for tougher sanctions against Microsoft, has argued the settlement was so profoundly flawed that it represented an abuse of the trial judge's discretion. It wants the appeals court to review the settlement to determine whether the sanctions against Microsoft were adequate.

And just to close things on a humorous note:

The bar association's antitrust group is "extremely influential in terms of development of antitrust policy and law," said Glenn B. Manishin, a Washington antitrust lawyer. But Manishin said Wallis will not be able to advance Microsoft's interests as head of the group. "I don't think the chair provides Microsoft any tactical or strategic advantage," Manishin said.